1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to containers and accessory connectors and processes for collecting the output of gas chromatographs and transferring said output to a further processing stage.
2. Relation to the Prior Art:
Gas chromatography involves the passing of chemical mixture samples in gaseous form through a chromatographic apparatus where the constituent components are spread out by delay factors inherent to their particular character. Knowing the delay characteristics for the different components, output collectors can be changed at the appropriate time intervals and their contents measured to determine what proportion of each component is in the original sample.
Inert gases such as helium or nitrogen are added to provide a flow medium or "carrier".
The output port of the chromatograph is usually connected to a collecting tube. A U-shaped tube is common since it allows condensate to drop to the bottom of the "U" with carrier gas flowing by it. There is usually some of the desired material passing on through the collecting tube with the carrier gas, either because it has not condensed or because the carrier gas has caught it up in bubbles and pushed it on out the open end. The condensate in the collection tube is recovered by various means, one of which is to remove the collection tube, place it in a centrifuge tube and drive the condensate from the collection tube by centrifuge action. Increasing interest in microscale preparative chromatography has placed a demand on increasing the sophistication of the steps dealing with the output of the chromatograph. In microscale operation, quantities are too small to allow for averaging out of descrepancies; the presenceof small amounts of contaminants are of particular concern. Precise control is a necessity.